[TriLUG] Ideas for Replacing Home Office Workhorse Computer?

[Matt Flyer via TriLUG]

Thank your the input. Actually, your comment has caused me to question if it “died” when I put it in the USB, which likely did as you said - short +5v to the chassis or if it went out when I next plugged it into the headphone jack. In an case, thanks to this list it’s back running and I’m currently installing Gentoo on it (I killed the Centos 7 trying to get the mp3 codec to play and said fuggit). At worst, I have a new vanilla computer that will serve me better, though I would rather not have spent the money on it right now. It happens.

Sent from my iPad

> On Jan 5, 2019, at 8:20 PM, shay walters via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org> wrote:
> 
> Oops - I should have read to the end of the thread.  Glad to hear that you
> got things going!
> 
> :-)
> 
> -Shay
> 
> 
>> On Sat, Jan 5, 2019 at 8:15 PM shay walters <shaywalters at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>    I've had this happen to me in the past.  Perhaps the current measuring
>> is done between the +5 and 0V pins on the USB connector, but if the +5
>> touches the ground (outer shell of the USB) maybe it doesn't register on
>> the over-current sensing.  I guess it depends on the design of the USB
>> port.  But I've definitely fixed a laptop by clearing up a short like
>> this.  I filled the mangled USB port with epoxy because I kept trying to
>> use it and re-shorting things, causing the computer to immediately power
>> off.
>>    If someone pushed hard on the earphone plug and separated the +5 bar
>> from the plastic "thing" (not sure what to call it), or maybe even broke
>> the plastic thing (the thing that keeps you from inserting a USB plug
>> backwards), it could short the +5 to ground.
>>    Anyway, just a suggestion.   It won't hurt to look and see if it might
>> be a fix.
>> 
>> -Shay
>> 
>> 
>> On Fri, Jan 4, 2019 at 3:03 PM Brian Henning <bhenning at pineresearch.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>>> It's possible you may have bent the power pin of the USB port to the
>>> point that it's touching the outer shell of the USB port.
>>> 
>>> That's a really badly-manufactured USB port if that's possible to do with
>>> an object as blunt as a 3.5-mm phone plug!
>>> 
>>> It also seems really unlikely that even a permanently-shorted USB power
>>> pin should keep the whole machine from powering on.  USB is supposed to
>>> work in such a way as to shut down the port if too much power is being
>>> drawn; the +5 pin in the connector should absolutely not be directly tied
>>> to the mobo's +5 rail and, if it is, that's a very badly-designed,
>>> standards-violating mobo.
>>> 
>>> I'm quite curious to hear what you find.
>>> 
>>> -B
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: TriLUG [mailto:trilug-bounces+bhenning=pineresearch.com at trilug.org]
>>> On Behalf Of shay walters via TriLUG
>>> Sent: Friday, January 04, 2019 2:56 PM
>>> To: matt at noway2.thruhere.net; Triangle Linux Users Group General
>>> Discussion <trilug at trilug.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Ideas for Replacing Home Office Workhorse Computer?
>>> 
>>>> As embarrassing as it is to admit it, I accidentally killed my Asus
>>>> laptop yesterday when trying to plug in the 3.5mm headphones and I
>>> think
>>>> I accidentally hit the power pin on a USB port instead.  Thing won't
>>>> even power up ...
>>> 
>>>  Take a look in there with a flashlight and see if it's like that.  If
>>> so, you can probably bend it down with a sharp tool so that it no longer
>>> shorts and maybe get the laptop going again.  That USB port might not be
>>> usable again after this.
>>> (If it's like this, it's already not usable.)
>>> 
>>> -Shay
>>> --
>>> This message was sent to: Brian <bhenning at pineresearch.com> To
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>>> 
>> 
> -- 
> This message was sent to: Matt Flyer <matt at noway2.thruhere.net>
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